Housing Project Ok`d By County

A 951-unit golf course development, eventually housing 2,600 people on a 666-acre former alligator farm, has won a split rezoning decision from the Palm Beach County Commission.

The approval of the Seminole Lakes project off Northlake Boulevard in the northern part of the county also generated a minor clash between officials from the county School Board and the county Parks and Recreation Department Thursday. The agencies disagreed over which one would receive 25 acres that the developer, Hummingbird Associates, agreed to donate for their use.

Developers suggested that the School Board get 15 acres and parks get 10, but Hummingbord attorney Bill Boose said he wanted no part of any dispute.

``It`s entirely up to the commission as to how the land is to be used,`` Boose said, stipulating, however, that it was donated for use either as a park, a school or both, but for no other civic use such as a municipal government complex.

Commissioners, meeting in West Palm Beach, opted to accept the donation of 25 acres ``for civic purposes`` and postpone a decision on who gets what until development is under way.

The combination of patio homes, townhomes and single-family residences, which will sell from $85,000 to $300,000 and up, would be built just south of Northlake Boulevard and west of the projected extension of State Road 7.

The plan calls for 444 acres of golf course, lakes and open area with the homes clustered in the middle.

Commissioners and a central Palm Beach County resident, Rosa Durando, said they were concerned about the impact this development, to be carved out of wet, marshy areas, would have on drainage.

Durando said the effect the project will have on drainage is unclear and urged the commission to withhold its approval until that can be determined.

``We don`t know what a 25-year storm would do to the wetlands because no one has ever lived there,`` she said.

``The Loxahatchee Conservation area will be in jeopardy. I don`t feel this type of intensive residential development is needed here.``

But any zoning approval by the commission for wetlands areas must be carefully reviewed by the South Florida Water Management District, and the developer cannot proceed unless he receives a permit from the district, Susan M. Coughanour, assistant to the water management district`s director of the resource control department, told the commission.

``If we approve this, we would be saying to you that if this works for you all, then it would be fine with us,`` Commissioner Dorothy Wilken told Coughanour.

``We rely on the (district) to say no if there is a problem (with drainage),`` Commissioner Ken Spillias said. ``We rely on your permitting and your expertise.``

Commissioner Jerry Owens voted for the project, saying the school system and the parks department can use the additional land. He said he has some reservations about the project.

Wilken was the only one of the five commissioners to vote against rezoning.

Boose said his client has agreed to finance $1.6 million in road improvements in the area. This would include extension of State Road 7 running by the development and improvements to West Lake Park Road (the extension of Northlake Boulevard).

``That works out to an average of $1,735 per home, more than twice the required impact fee of $840 per unit,`` Boose said.

A six-acre commercial site is planned next to the proposed village center and golf clubhouse, on the south end of the property. Up to 60,000 square feet of retail space will be built.

Developers initially designated more than 30 acres in the northeast corner of the site off Northlake Boulevard for commercial development.

But, Boose said, county zoning officials suggested that might be too much commercial and that it might attract too many outsiders, causing traffic problems on Northlake Boulevard.

The developer agreed to reduce substantially his commercial site and to relocate it to the southern end next to Ibis Landing -- another major residential project adjacent to the south. Both projects are just west of the West Palm Beach Water Catchment area.

The commercial-retail area will also serve Ibis Landing, which has no commercially zoned land, Boose said.